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New Orleans Saints' draft busts | No. 1 all-time

Russell Erxleben

New Orleans Saints kicker Russell Erxleben goes through the motions but misses a field goal try in the season opener in the dome, Sept. 18, 1980. After another bad game the following week, the Saints signed a new kicker but kept the former Texas star on to do the punting. (AP Photo/Jerry Lodriguss)
(Jerry Lodriguss)

Pointing out the busts in the history of the New Orleans Saints' NFL
draft classes presents a cumbersome challenge thanks mostly to how
poorly the franchise evaluated talent during much of the first 10-12
years of the team's existence.

That's not to say the Saints
haven't bungled their fair share of draft picks once New Orleans
actually strung together a winning season or two.

And evaluating
the extreme nature of the bust is certainly subjective. It could come
from the player just being flat-out brutal or because the players
selected after the Saints' pick panned out much more favorably.

We're
narrowing it down to the top five all-time Saints draft busts with this
year's NFL draft commencing May 8 in New York City.

Tight end Kellen Winslow might have been a fine pick at No. 11 overall in 1979. Maybe even quarterback Joe Montana? How about a bag of marbles? Anything but a punter/kicker in the first round.

Well, the Saints tried to outsmart the world by taking Erxleben, a three-time All-American specialist, with their first-round pick. It became another reason to wear a bag on your head as a Saints fan.

Erxleben was used primarily as a punter with the Saints as he only went 4 of 8 in career field-goal attempts in his five seasons with the Saints. Despite being a huge success as a kicker at Texas, he couldn't win the job in his rookie season and became the punter instead.

His first game with the Saints was laughable. Erxleben chased down a bad snap in overtime and then threw an interception for a game-winning touchdown to lose to the Falcons in the 1979 season opener. The rest is infamous history.

At least Sebastian Janikowski, the next first-round specialist selection after Erxleben in 2000, has stuck with the Raiders and earned one All-Pro nod. Erxleben can only make the all-penal league team now as he was sentenced to seven years in prison in February in connection to an illegal investment scam.

The Erxleben pick has become one of those annual NFL draft bloopers of what not to do in the first round.

Katherine Terrell's No. 1 Saints draft bust

ERXLEBEN

Perhaps if the Saints would have drafted just a little better in the early years of the franchise, their mistakes could have been forgiven.

After all, Sebastian Janikowski was taken in the first round of the 2000 draft, and people have long stopped laughing at the pick. Janikowski was projected as a late first/early second rounder, so the pick wasn't absolutely insane.

But the Saints had already bungled the first round about 10 times before they even got to Erxleben. So nobody was very impressed with their kicker/punter selection in 1979.

Things quickly went from bad to worse in 1980 when 23-year-old Erxleben asked be to relieved of his placekicking duties after a particularly bad streak.

A frustrated Erxleben handled only punting duties from that point on.

"This is a football-crazy town and they love their football, but people ask the dumbest questions," Erxleben said in 1980. "They'd ask, 'Why did you miss it? I'd say the coach told me to. ...

"Another one asked me if I had tried to commit suicide. I said 'Yes, but I missed to the left."

Erxleben's final game as a Saint was about as bad as his first. In the 1983 season finale, Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Henry Ellard eluded him to return a punt 72 yards for a touchdown. Erxleben was carted off the field after the play. The Saints 26-24 loss knocked them out of an NFC wildcard spot.

Erxleben summed up his Saints career nicely:

"They're always putting 'million dollar kicker' in front of my name," he said in 1980. "I mean, why can't I just be the kicker in New Orleans?

But things didn't get better for him after he was cut from the team in 1984.

Erxleben continued to find trouble after the Saints. In 1993, he was charged with assault after a former business associate accused him of hitting him with a cell phone.

In 1999, he was sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of security fraud. Erxleben found himself there again this year, after he earned another seven-year sentence for money laundering.